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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27545716">force of habit</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/elysian/pseuds/cutaepatootae'>cutaepatootae (elysian)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alpha Choi Soobin, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M, Omega Huening Kai, Porn with Feelings, Praise Kink, Safe Sane and Consensual, Voyeurism, also soobin: denial personified, and then a lot of gratuitous porn, first heat, i feel like i needed to tag that, meanwhile kai's just minding his own business being irresistible as always, mostly denial and Realising Things, plus a lot of accidental foreplay, soobin excels in the art of rubbing tummies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:28:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,773</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27545716</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/elysian/pseuds/cutaepatootae</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He hasn’t even touched Kai, but he already feels completely out of his depth. “How’re you feeling?” Soobin manages to say, walking slowly over to Kai’s bed.</p><p>“Like shit,” Kai whines. “I feel so hot, and my skin’s all prickly, and everything hurts.”</p><p>(or: kai goes into heat for the very first time, soobin helps him through it, and things go downhill from there)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Choi Soobin/Huening Kai</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>382</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>force of habit</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>sooooo right off the bat i'd like to say that this is, essentially, 10k words of PWP, except there's a bit of plot and the porn only really happens at the 7-8k mark. but ngl the whole thing might as well be porn. consider yourself warned!!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p3">Huening Kai’s heat catches mostly no one by surprise.</p><p class="p3">He’d grown increasingly restless over the past three days, jumping at the slightest shoe drop and snapping at the members when he ordinarily would have laughed. Soobin would be worried, except he’s too busy laughing at the way Kai’s right eye twitches whenever Yeonjun ruffles his hair or Taehyun sprawls over his lap.</p><p class="p3">It hits Kai in the middle of an otherwise ordinary supper. One moment he’s huddled up next to Soobin, devouring his bowl of bingsu; the next, he’s stuffing a frankly alarming amount of shaved ice into his mouth, face turning a violent red, and then fleeing to his room.</p><p class="p3">“You owe me,” Yeonjun tells Beomgyu, cackling at Kai’s retreating figure. “Fork it up.”</p><p class="p3">“That’s <em>unfair</em>,” Beomgyu complains, throwing a fork at Yeonjun instead. “You Alphas have your stupid superior sense of smell and I‘ve got nothing!”</p><p class="p3">“Maybe you shouldn’t have placed that bet about Kai being a Beta then,” Taehyun remarks from the couch, where he’s deep in a game of Among Us.</p><p class="p3">“Honest,” Yeonjun says, holding his hands up. “I’m only now smelling it on him.”</p><p class="p3">The sweet, sweet smell of an Omega in heat. Soobin tries not to breathe too deeply.</p><p class="p3">Beomgyu flashes Soobin a pleading look.</p><p class="p3">“Sorry dude,” Soobin says apologetically. “Jjunie’s telling the truth. For once.”</p><p class="p3">“Fine,” Beomgyu says, and he’s unlocking his phone to send Yeonjun the debt he owes when Soobin hears it.</p><p class="p3">Kai, moaning in his room. A soft noise of discomfort, a tiny plea for help.</p><p class="p3">Soobin sees Yeonjun go still. His head tilts ever so slightly, a mirror image of Soobin, as both their bodies react helplessly to Kai. Their maknae. Their Omega.</p><p class="p3"><em>Mine</em>, Soobin’s mind whispers.</p><p class="p3">“Hello?” Beomgyu says, waving his phone in Yeonjun’s face. “Earth to Yeonjun, are you there? Your payment, sir, in full.”</p><p class="p3">Yeonjun blinks. “As expected,” he says haughtily, then slides his eyes over to Soobin, questioning. Asking for permission.</p><p class="p3">Soobin steadily swallows a flash of possessiveness. “I’m gonna check on Kai,” he says, standing up. “Clear the plates for me, guys. Yeonjun, can you text manager-nim to let him know Kai’s got his first heat? He’ll be out of it for the next day or so, so our schedules might need switching up. Taehyunie, remember your first time? I’ll need your help to change Kai’s bedsheets tomorrow morning. Take my room tonight. I’ll ride out the night with Kai."</p><p class="p3">“Sure, hyung,” Taehyun says, glancing up at Soobin. Then, horribly, he winks. “Just make sure you’re riding it out, not letting Kai ride you.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin stumbles and stubs his toe against Kai’s closed door. He glares at Taehyun. “Brain out of the gutter. Now.”</p><p class="p3">“You never did anything like that with Soobinie, did you?” Yeonjun asks Taehyun, mouth dropping incredulously.</p><p class="p3">“God, no,” Taehyun says, nose wrinkling. “I’ve never wanted Soobinie like that, not even in my worst heats. Ew.”</p><p class="p3">“Soobin and <em>Kai</em>, though,” Beomgyu pipes up, contributing absolutely nothing of value to the discussion. “That’s a whole other —“</p><p class="p3">“End of conversation,” Soobin hisses at all of them, the traitors. He opens Kai’s door and slams into the room.</p><p class="p3">And then he nearly slams back out, because — because, god, Kai smells <em>divine</em>.</p><p class="p3">Soobin’s never smelled anything like it. He’s caught tail-end whiffs of Omegas rushing by him on their way home, and inhaled far too much of Taehyun’s scent than he cares to have had, especially during his months to accompany Taehyun during his heats, and in general since presenting he’s learned that Omegas smell... very nice. Very, very nice. Like the warm, inviting scent of a fresh batch of pastries in a cafe on a sunny Sunday afternoon.</p><p class="p3">But nothing quite compares to Kai’s scent, heady and insistent and all-encompassing. It’s staggering, the way it makes Soobin’s mouth water. Soobin has to pinch his nose and close his eyes for a moment, just to get his inhibitions back in control. </p><p class="p3">“Hyung?” Kai murmurs, and Soobin’s eyes fly open.</p><p class="p3">Kai is curled up in bed, covers tangled around his legs. He’s clutching Endolphin between his thighs, and something soft curls in Soobin’s gut.</p><p class="p3">“Hey,” Soobin says, keeping his voice steady. He’s always been good at controlling his Alpha impulses — far better than Yeonjun — so this should be easy. This should feel like all the times he’d helped Taehyun through his heats. Pleasant and easy to resist.</p><p class="p3">Right?</p><p class="p3">He hasn’t even touched Kai, but he already feels completely out of his depth.</p><p class="p3">“How’re you feeling?” Soobin manages to say, walking slowly over to Kai’s bed.</p><p class="p3">“Like shit,” Kai whines. “I feel so hot, and my skin’s all prickly, and everything <em>hurts</em>.” He squeezes his legs together. “And, well, you know.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin feels himself flush.</p><p class="p3">“That’s normal,” Soobin manages, sitting on the edge of Kai’s bed. Carefully, he places a tentative hand on Kai’s arm. “How does this feel?”</p><p class="p3">“Mm,” Kai sighs, eyes closing. “Nice. Feels like, like drinking ice cold water straight from the fridge after trainings, you know?”</p><p class="p3">“I know,” Soobin says, sliding his hand up and down Kai’s arm now. Kai’s practically radiating waves of pleasure, and it makes Soobin a little dizzy. “How do you really feel, Huening-ah?”</p><p class="p3">Kai looks at Soobin. “Honestly? Being a Beta would have been so much more awesome.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin gives Kai a lopsided smile. “Being an Omega isn’t so bad.”</p><p class="p3">“It’s… disruptive,” Kai says, making a face. “Look at Beomgyu, living his life without worrying about going into heat or rut or accidentally mating someone.”</p><p class="p3">“What about Taehyun? He’s been handling himself pretty well since his first heat.”</p><p class="p3">“But that’s <em>Taehyun</em>. He’s unbothered by everything. I’m a mess, like, all the time.”</p><p class="p3">The snort escapes before Soobin can hold it in. “Not untrue.”</p><p class="p3">Kai swats him. “This is the part where you’re supposed to tell me I’m more put-together than I feel, and that I’ve got it all under control.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin raises a meaningful eyebrow.</p><p class="p3">“You’re terrible,” Kai declares.</p><p class="p3">“Best friends don’t lie.”</p><p class="p3">Kai flops around indignantly, turning his back to Soobin.</p><p class="p3">Soobin laughs. “I’m kidding, Huening-ah. It’s your first heat, so it’s normal to feel weird and out-of-sorts. You’ll get the hang of it eventually, with mine and Yeonjun’s help. Did I ever tell you about my first rut?”</p><p class="p3">“… no.”</p><p class="p3">“It happened when I was in high school, math class. Back before we knew each other. I was falling asleep at my table, and then suddenly everything hit me. The heightened sense of smell. The skin-crawling itch. The… arousal.”</p><p class="p3">Kai squirms beneath Soobin’s hand, now stroking his shoulder.</p><p class="p3">“Next thing I know, I’m humping the thigh of my table-mate,” Soobin says, with mirth. “Kwangjun. He was an Omega too, and I’m only glad he was a dude. I’d probably have been suspended if I’d done that to a girl. Thinking about it now… god. That was, hands down, the most embarrassing moment of my life, ever, no competition.”</p><p class="p3">“Oh my god,” Kai says, shaking with laughter. “You were one of <em>those</em>.”</p><p class="p3">Alphas’ first ruts usually involve some modicum of sexual desire, but Soobin’s had, unfortunately, been on the higher end of the horny spectrum.</p><p class="p3">“Yeah. Yeah, I was one of those. So you’re handling it really well,” Soobin says comfortingly. “You didn’t jump anyone. You didn’t even break anything, like Taehyun did.”</p><p class="p3">Kai squirms again, burying his nose into Endolphin. “I almost did.”</p><p class="p3">“What? Break something?”</p><p class="p3">“Jump someone,” Kai says, muffled. “Have been wanting to. Um. For the past couple days.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin shifts uncomfortably. “Oh.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin doesn’t want to think about why the thought of Kai wanting to jump anyone makes him see red.</p><p class="p3">The silence sits thick between them.</p><p class="p3">“I’m managing it,” Kai says, eventually. “Um. Trying to, anyway. But — but it’ll only get worse, won’t it, hyung?”</p><p class="p3">Kai’s voice wavers, and Soobin’s first instinct is to cover Kai with his body, give him the protection he needs.</p><p class="p3">He fights it, and breathes slowly through his mouth.</p><p class="p3">“That’s what I’m here for,” Soobin says. “Cuddling with an Alpha helps. Just — just don’t jump me, yeah?”</p><p class="p3">He’d meant for it to be a joke, but it falls flat.</p><p class="p3">Kai makes an indistinguishable noise that sounds, vaguely, like he’d rather die.</p><p class="p3">Soobin clears his throat. “You should rest. Are you comfortable? Do you need anything? Water?”</p><p class="p3">“Yeah, water’s good. Ice cold water?” Kai asks, voice hoarse.</p><p class="p3">“Okay,” Soobin says, wrenching himself from Kai. It’s remarkably difficult. “I’ll be back. You’ll be okay for a few minutes?”</p><p class="p3">“Yeah,” Kai breathes. “I’ll be okay.”</p><p class="p3">Okay. Okay.</p><p class="p3">Soobin would like to think that he walks out of the room with great dignity, but in reality he flees.</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">—</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">“How is he?” Yeonjun asks, as Soobin shovels ice into an empty glass in the kitchen. </p><p class="p3">“Fine,” Soobin grunts. “He wishes he could’ve been a Beta too.”</p><p class="p3">“Honestly, who doesn’t?” Yeonjun sighs.</p><p class="p3">“That’s right, be jealous!” Beomgyu crows from the living room. Yeonjun rolls his eyes.</p><p class="p3">“I might need you to step in tomorrow,” Soobin says, pouring water into Kai’s glass, then turning to face Yeonjun. “Kai… he’s getting to me. It feels different from Taehyun’s heats.”</p><p class="p3">A slow smirk steals over Yeonjun’s face. “<em>Oh</em>. Does it, now?”</p><p class="p3">Soobin scowls. “Stop that. I know what you’re thinking.”</p><p class="p3">“Pray tell, what am I thinking?”</p><p class="p3">“I bet 30,000 won that Soobin and Kai’ll do the deed before Kai’s heat ends,” Beomgyu calls.</p><p class="p3">Soobin nearly drops the glass of water.</p><p class="p3">“30,000 won Soobin waits till <em>after</em> Kai’s heat to do it,” Yeonjun fires back.</p><p class="p3">“Is there a bet that doesn’t involve us doing anything?” Soobin asks. “Seriously? Come on, there’s nothing going on between us. You know that.”</p><p class="p3">“Your mouth says one thing, but the way you two act around each other says something else entirely,” Taehyun says, where he still hasn’t moved from the couch.</p><p class="p3">Soobin sends Taehyun a look of utmost betrayal.</p><p class="p3">“You’d better head back to our Omega,” Yeonjun says, patting Soobin on the ass.</p><p class="p3">Soobin bristles.</p><p class="p3">“Sorry,” Yeonjun says, with a great deal of amusement. “<em>Your</em> Omega.”</p><p class="p3">It takes all of Soobin’s long-trained impulse control not to throw the glass of water into Yeonjun’s stupid smug face.</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">—</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">The night — which Soobin can already tell is going to be <em>extremely</em> long — starts smoothly enough.</p><p class="p3">He takes a deep breath outside Kai’s room, mentally preparing himself for the heady onslaught of Kai’s scent.</p><p class="p3">Then he walks in, lets Kai swallow the glass of water like he’s dying of thirst, and absolutely does not watch the way Kai’s throat moves with every swallow, because — because, what the <em>fuck</em>, they’re best friends, have always been just best friends, nothing more, but now all of a sudden it’s as though Soobin’s stupid Alpha brain is letting itself be duped by Kai’s hormones into wanting something he’s never ever allowed himself to consider.</p><p class="p3">“Good thing it’s almost winter,” Kai says, licking his lips and placing the empty glass on his bedside table. “I can’t imagine feeling this hot in the middle of summer, god.”</p><p class="p3">Honestly, Soobin can’t either. The last time he felt this flushed was during his rut.</p><p class="p3">It takes sliding into Kai’s bed, curling around him with an arm around his waist like they always do in the living room, for Soobin to realise:</p><p class="p3">He’s fucked.</p><p class="p3">He is well and truly fucked.</p><p class="p3">Kai whines happily, a pleased little sound from the back of his throat, and wiggles back against Soobin, back flushed against Soobin’s chest.</p><p class="p3">He smells like heaven. Like spiced, mulled wine. Like — like something Soobin would really, really like to taste.</p><p class="p3">Soobin only realises he’s halfway from sinking his teeth into Kai’s neck when Kai turns his head to look back at Soobin.</p><p class="p3">“You okay, hyung?” Kai asks, and Soobin snaps back to reality.</p><p class="p3">“Uh,” Soobin says, clearing his throat. He swallows. “Yeah, I’m good, why?”</p><p class="p3">“You were… purring.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin blinks. “I do not <em>pur</em>.”</p><p class="p3">“Yeah, nope. You were totally purring.”</p><p class="p3">“You smell good,” Soobin blurts. Outside, the wind whistles past their window. Soobin kind of wants to crawl under Kai’s bed and die from deep, unadulterated embarrassment.</p><p class="p3">“Oh,” Kai says, sounding pleased. “Do I?”</p><p class="p3">“You always do.” It’s true. Kai’s always smelled good to Soobin, even before he’d presented.</p><p class="p3">“Will you rub my tummy?” Kai asks.</p><p class="p3">“Of course,” Soobin says, and slides his palm over Kai’s stomach, ignoring the way Kai’s breath hitches.</p><p class="p3">“Feels nice,” Kai says softly, and Soobin can hear his smile. “Feels better than usual. Mm. Maybe being an Omega isn’t so bad after all.”</p><p class="p3">“Maybe,” Soobin murmurs. Or maybe not.</p><p class="p3">Kai being an Omega is… it’s confusing, and Soobin hates feeling confused.</p><p class="p3">“‘m comfy,” Kai mumbles, sighing happily. “‘g’night, hyung. Don’t stop.”</p><p class="p3">“I won’t,” Soobin promises, and waits for Kai’s breaths to slow down and deepen before dropping off to sleep himself.</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">—</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">Kai’s heat kicks in in earnest in the middle of the night. It’s pitch black outside, and their dorm’s sleepy silent, so when Kai moans, Soobin wakes up almost instantly.</p><p class="p3">The back of Kai’s shirt is damp with sweat, and — fuck. Soobin makes the mistake of inhaling through his nose, and that’s when he smells it. The sweet, dizzying, unmistakeable scent of Kai’s slick. <em>Fuck</em>.</p><p class="p3">Is this… is this normal?</p><p class="p3">Taehyun’s heats have always given him erections, which they both pointedly ignore, but he’s never become <em>wet</em> from cuddling Soobin.</p><p class="p3">It must be because this is Kai’s first heat. That’s the only explanation. It had been Yeonjun who’d helped Taehyun through his first heat, so Soobin isn’t sure how bad Taehyun’s first heat was, but he remembers having to change Taehyun’s damp bedsheets the morning after — wet from sweat or slick, he has no clue. He knows from sex ed classes that Omega’s first heats are always the worst and most hard-hitting, so it’s crucial for Omegas to have an Alpha they can trust by their side to offer the comfort and protection their bodies inherently crave for.</p><p class="p3">It’s crucial that Soobin can be all these things for Kai, without taking advantage of it.</p><p class="p3">Kai moans again, writhing against Soobin, and Soobin pinches his eyes closed and focuses very hard on willing his own arousal away.</p><p class="p3">Fucking Alpha/Omega biology.</p><p class="p3">Soobin’s just about resigned himself to a long, sleepless night when Kai whimpers, shifting in his arms, and wakes up with a start.</p><p class="p3">“Hyung,” Kai gasps, voice high.</p><p class="p3">“Right here,” Soobin says.</p><p class="p3">“I — I feel —“ Kai’s words die in his throat, replaced by a groan. “It hurts. Hyung, it <em>hurts</em>.”</p><p class="p3">In that moment, Soobin’s almost blinded by his primal instinct to protect Kai. To take care of him. To give him what he’s wordlessly asking for.</p><p class="p3">His body knows exactly what Kai needs — but his brain knows exactly what Kai won’t want.</p><p class="p3">“Please,” Kai mumbles. “Please.”</p><p class="p3">“Take off your shirt,” Soobin says, recalling the research he and Yeonjun had frantically powered through when Taehyun first presented as an Omega.</p><p class="p3">“Yeah,” Kai breathes, struggling out of his shirt. “Touch me. <em>Please</em>.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin sits up, stripping out of his own shirt. “I am. I will. Just — not there. Okay? I’ll take care of you, Huening-ah. But I won’t take advantage of you. Do you trust me?”</p><p class="p3">“Of course,” Kai rasps, but he sounds so wrecked, Soobin has a feeling he’d say anything just to get what his biology’s urging him to want. “It hurts.” His voice breaks on the last word, and Soobin has to stop breathing for a second just to catch his breath.</p><p class="p3">“I know,” Soobin says, lying back down beside Kai and gathering him in his arms. “I know, baby.”</p><p class="p3">Kai trembles, a full-body shudder, before relaxing into Soobin’s chest. Another wave of that sweet, spicy, addictive wet-slick scent overwhelms Soobin, and Kai moans.</p><p class="p3">And then he’s arching his back, just a little, so that his ass presses flush against Soobin’s crotch.</p><p class="p3">Soobin’s achingly hard. And now Kai knows it.</p><p class="p3">“Kai,” Soobin says, swallowing. “What are you doing?”</p><p class="p3">“It feels good,” Kai says plaintively. “Just. I need you.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin takes a shaky breath through his mouth. “You have me. I’m not going anywhere.”</p><p class="p3">“I need <em>more</em>.” Kai shifts back, shamelessly rubbing his ass against Soobin’s groin. Fuck. “Hyung, please, I —“</p><p class="p3">“You don’t really want this,” Soobin says, jaw clenching, every molecule of his body screaming at him to reciprocate Kai’s open invitation. “It’s the heat, Huening-ah. You know it is.”</p><p class="p3">“<em>Please</em>,” Kai whispers, desperate now. “I can’t — I need —“</p><p class="p3">“I‘m sorry,” Soobin murmurs against the back of Kai’s head. He grips Kai by the hips, and Kai flat-out <em>moans</em>, and Soobin very nearly tugs Kai closer, very nearly rips Kai’s pants down so he can bury his cock into Kai’s wet, slick ass.</p><p class="p3">God.</p><p class="p3">It takes all of Soobin’s self-restraint to push Kai away.</p><p class="p3">“You want it too,” Kai says, struggling. “I know you want it, I can smell it on you, hyung. I felt you. <em>Alpha</em>.”</p><p class="p3">“Kai,” Soobin says, strangled, barely holding on. “Stop.”</p><p class="p3">Kai, as expected, does nothing of the sort.</p><p class="p3">He breaks free of Soobin’s grip and turns around. Straddles Soobin. Leans down into his space, eyes dark and lips parted.</p><p class="p3">“Don’t you want me?” Kai asks, breathy. Sultry. He cants his hips down, sending a live current of pleasure straight up Soobin’s spine.</p><p class="p3">“I —“ Soobin turns his face away. He can’t look at Kai. Can’t bear to see his shy, sweet, mischievous Kai so <em>gone</em>. This Kai is wild; he’s desperate; he’s a devastating, dangerous wreck, sinking beneath the waves of desire and threatening to drag Soobin under. </p><p class="p3">The real Kai would never forgive him if he let anything happen between them.</p><p class="p3">“I don’t want you. Not like this,” Soobin answers, and it’s the truth. It should be the truth. After years and years of platonic friendship, of laughing at each other’s boogers and stealing each other’s fries and sleeping over at each other’s houses, they’ve never so much as looked at each other like — like this. They’ve never considered it. It’s never even crossed Soobin’s mind, despite everyone else’s teasing.</p><p class="p3">It’s the truth, so he doesn’t know why it tastes like a lie.</p><p class="p3">Kai stills above him, just barely illuminated by the moonlight stealing in through the gap in the curtains. Hurt flashes through his features.</p><p class="p3">Then Kai’s eyes go shadowed and dark and determined.</p><p class="p3">“Explain this, then,” Kai says lowly, and strokes a single finger down the line of Soobin’s erection.</p><p class="p3">Soobin jerks, another jolt of heat surging through him. <em>Fuck</em>. Enough is enough. He grabs Kai by the waist and hauls him back down to bed, then rolls Kai over so Soobin’s pressing him facedown into the mattress.</p><p class="p3">He slides a leg between the back of Kai’s thighs, and Kai whimpers.</p><p class="p3">“Listen to me,” Soobin says, hard and rough, gripping Kai by the shoulders. “Are you listening to me, Hueningie? Acknowledge me.”</p><p class="p3">“Yeah,” Kai mumbles. “‘m listenin’.”</p><p class="p3">“I love you,” Soobin says. “Do you believe me?”</p><p class="p3">“I love you too.”</p><p class="p3">“Answer me.”</p><p class="p3">“Yes. Of course I believe you.”</p><p class="p3">“Good.” Soobin takes a deep breath through his mouth. “Then believe me when I say you don’t want me either, Kai. Okay? Not like this. I love you so, so much, but we’re <em>best friends. </em>Not mates. Not lovers. Do you understand? Learn to control your impulses. It’s not easy, I know, but that’s what I’m here for. Let me help you. I can’t help you if you make this hard for me.”</p><p class="p3">Kai laughs, a sharp, broken sound, and it shatters Soobin’s heart. “But you’re already <em>so hard</em>.”</p><p class="p3">“It’s just my body reacting to yours,” Soobin says, keeping his hands tight on Kai’s shoulders, even though Kai’s long gone limp and submissive. “We just need to get through tonight, and then the worst of it will be over. You can do this — I know you can. Control yourself. Can you do that for me?”</p><p class="p3">Kai whimpers.</p><p class="p3">“Can you?” Soobin asks again.</p><p class="p3">“Yes, Alpha,” Kai whispers.</p><p class="p3">“Good boy,” Soobin says, and doesn’t miss the way Kai’s entire body lights up, shuddering at the praise. “I’m going to take our pants off, but our briefs stay on. Got it?”</p><p class="p3">“<em>Oh</em>.” Kai sounds very approving.</p><p class="p3">“No tricks,” Soobin warns.</p><p class="p3">“Promise,” Kai says.</p><p class="p3">Soobin helps to pull Kai’s sweatpants off, and then he strips his own off and shucks them somewhere on the ground.</p><p class="p3">“Get some sleep,” Soobin says, sliding behind Kai and resuming his original position draped against Kai’s back. Kai releases a small, breathy sigh, and wiggles innocently back until they’re touching from chest to hips, thighs to ankles.</p><p class="p3">“I’m gonna get the world’s worst case of blue balls,” Kai mumbles, and Soobin can’t help but laugh into the nape of his neck.</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">—</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">The next morning, Soobin wakes up hard and throbbing. He’s somehow managed to line his crotch snug against Kai’s ass, and he’s leaked through his briefs so much that he’s left a damning wet patch on Kai’s underwear.</p><p class="p3">Or perhaps that’s the slick from Kai’s ass.</p><p class="p3">In any case, there’s no way in hell he’ll be able to endure another 24 hours of this torture. He’ll either die from, as Kai so aptly put it, the world’s worst case of blue balls, or from losing control of himself and accidentally fucking Kai into tomorrow.</p><p class="p3">Soobin shakes his head ruefully and wrenches himself out of bed.</p><p class="p3">Cold shower. That’s what he needs. A really, really cold shower.</p><p class="p3">He ends up taking himself in hand and coming messily down the shower drain anyway. Twice.</p><p class="p3">When he finally leaves the bathroom, Yeonjun’s already outside, making coffee.</p><p class="p3">“Morning,” Soobin says gruffly, banging the cupboard open.</p><p class="p3">“Wow. Good morning to you too,” Yeonjun says drily.</p><p class="p3">“Listen,” Soobin says, grabbing a box of Honey Stars. “I need your help to take care of Kai today. Did manager-nim move our schedules?”</p><p class="p3">“Yeah,” Yeonjun says, resting his hip against the counter. “Individual vocal trainings for us today. You’re scheduled for the morning; mine’s in the afternoon. So I’ll only be able to cover you till two.”</p><p class="p3">“Yes, great, thank you,” Soobin says, pouring the cereal into an empty bowl. “I just need some time to breathe. Away from Kai.”</p><p class="p3">“What happened?” Yeonjun asks, taking a sip of his coffee. “You look like a bed of roses.”</p><p class="p3">“Has Taehyun ever,” Soobin lowers his voice, “propositioned you before? During his heats?”</p><p class="p3">Yeonjun slowly, meaningfully, raises an eyebrow. “Propositioned?”</p><p class="p3">“Has he ever asked you to fuck him,” Soobin says bluntly.</p><p class="p3">Yeonjun’s eyes go huge. “Did — did Kai —?”</p><p class="p3">Soobin pours the milk into his cereal. “Not in those exact words, but pretty much.”</p><p class="p3">“Did you?”</p><p class="p3">Soobin nearly spills the milk all over the counter.</p><p class="p3">“Of course not!” he splutters. “Hyung!”</p><p class="p3">“Just making sure I’ve still got a chance at that 30,000 won,” Yeonjun says, taking another casual sip of his coffee. “But no. Taehyun’s never asked me to do anything more than cuddle.”</p><p class="p3">“Even during his first heat?”</p><p class="p3">“Especially during his first heat. He tried to throw me out of the room. It was all violence and scary Taehyun aggression, there was no room for anything fun like that.”</p><p class="p3">“This is not <em>fun</em>.”</p><p class="p3">“Nothing’s fun for you,” Yeonjun scoffs.</p><p class="p3">“Did Taehyun ever get... wet?” Soobin asks. “During his first heat?”</p><p class="p3">“<em>God</em>, no,” Yeonjun says, looking horrified. “Gross!”</p><p class="p3">“You just said fucking would be fun,” Soobin points out.</p><p class="p3">“The principle of it,” Yeonjun says loftily. “Between two, consenting beings of sound mind.” </p><p class="p3">“Kai got really wet last night,” Soobin says, rubbing a hand down his face. “I thought it was a first heat thing, but...”</p><p class="p3">“It’s a you thing!” Yeonjun says, cackling. “He wants <em>you</em>, Soobinie.”</p><p class="p3">“I... no,” Soobin says, spooning cereal into his mouth. “He’s just — more reactive, I think. More sexual. I was a mess when my first rut hit too. He just needs a few more sessions to get his impulses under control, and then he’ll be fine. Right?“</p><p class="p3">“... right,” Yeonjun says, stealing some of Soobin’s cereal. “I’ll be sure to let you know if Kai tries to... <em>proposition</em> me too.”</p><p class="p3">Yeonjun winks.</p><p class="p3">Soobin swallows, and when Yeonjun knocks back the rest of his coffee and heads into Kai’s bedroom, he tells himself sending Yeonjun to Kai is an absolutely necessary course of action.</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">—</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">Soobin refuses to eavesdrop on Kai and Yeonjun in bed together, so he obediently heads to the gym after vocal training, as per schedule, and hits the weights in a desperate attempt to work out the confusion and tension from last night.</p><p class="p3">“Wow,” Taehyun says from behind. “Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?”</p><p class="p3">“Shut it,” Soobin says crossly.</p><p class="p3">“You always skip gym trainings,” Taehyun points out.</p><p class="p3">“I’m aware.”</p><p class="p3">Taehyun gives Soobin his signature <em>I won’t ask if you don’t want to talk about it but you know you can always talk to me</em> look, then heads over to the bench press.</p><p class="p3">Soobin sighs.</p><p class="p3">“Hey,” he says. “Taehyunie. Can I ask you something... sensitive?”</p><p class="p3">“Let me guess — you want to know more about Omega biology because Kai’s first heat has you all worked up and now you have questions, plus you’re also second-guessing the platonic status of your friendship with your,” Taehyun makes air quotation marks with his fingers, “<em>best friend</em>.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin blinks. “I, uh, well. Yes. Something like that.”</p><p class="p3">“Ask away.”</p><p class="p3">“I know this is... crude,” Soobin starts. He looks around surreptitiously, but the gym’s empty except for the two of them. “But have you ever, wanted to... you know. Do stuff. During your heats?”</p><p class="p3">Taehyun eyes Soobin. “Like jerk off? All the time.”</p><p class="p3">“No, not that, I mean, uh. Do stuff with Yeonjun. Or me. Just. You know. <em>Stuff</em>.”</p><p class="p3">“You need to be a little more explicit, hyung.”</p><p class="p3">“Fuck,” Soobin blurts.</p><p class="p3">“Is that an answer or you just swearing?”</p><p class="p3">“Both?”</p><p class="p3">Taehyun snorts, then full out dissolves into laughter. Which is just plain rude, in Soobin’s opinion.</p><p class="p3">“This isn’t <em>funny</em>,” Soobin says.</p><p class="p3">“But your face is hilarious,” Taehyun says between snickers.</p><p class="p3">“<em>Taehyun</em>.”</p><p class="p3">“Sorry, but no. You know I don’t swing that way, so the thought of doing anything with you or Yeonjun-hyung is just. I don’t know. Vomit-inducing?”</p><p class="p3">“Oh,” Soobin says, faltering, “but —“</p><p class="p3">“But Kai went all horny on you? Yeah, I’m not surprised. You and I both know Kai’s head over heels for you, hyung. We’ve been telling you that for <em>years</em>.”</p><p class="p3">“Oh my god,” Soobin whispers.</p><p class="p3">“What happened, exactly?”</p><p class="p3">Soobin stares at Taehyun. “He, uh. He tried to grind me. And, um, he —“ Soobin gestures vaguely to his ass, face burning, “started producing, uh —“</p><p class="p3">“Slick?” Taehyun asks, both eyebrows shooting almost to his hairline when Soobin nods. “<em>Oh</em>. Wow.”</p><p class="p3">“Wow — what? Why? Should I be worried?”</p><p class="p3">“It’s just. Hmm. I’m not sure if you’re ready to hear this, because it isn’t really the kind of thing they teach you in Alpha sex ed.” Taehyun tilts his head, giving Soobin a considering look. “Promise me you won’t avoid Kai after this.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin purses his lips.</p><p class="p3">“You’re... you’re already avoiding him,” Taehyun says, voice colouring with realisation. “That’s why you’re here, instead of accompanying him.”</p><p class="p3">“No I’m not,” Soobin lies.</p><p class="p3">Taehyun crosses his arms. “I think it’s time you started being honest with yourself. Do you or do you not have a thing for Kai?”</p><p class="p3">“I don’t!” Soobin says. “I swear. I don’t — I don’t know what happened last night, but I swear I’ve never looked at him as anything more than my closest friend. Ever.”</p><p class="p3">Until last night.</p><p class="p3">“Were you aroused too?” Taehyun asks.</p><p class="p3">“I — maybe,” Soobin says, shifting uncomfortably. “But that’s not the point. I want to know why Kai producing slick is something I should be concerned about.”</p><p class="p3">Taehyun laughs again, but this time he sounds far less amused. “Omegas only produce slick when their bodies detect a potential fuck in the near future. Basically — when they smell arousal from their Alphas. So. You were definitely aroused by Kai. He smelled it on you. And that’s why he got wet.”</p><p class="p3">Oh.</p><p class="p3">
  <em>I can smell it on you, hyung.</em>
</p><p class="p3">It explains Kai’s persistence last night.</p><p class="p3">“But,” Soobin says, a little helplessly, “I don’t — I’m not attracted to him like that.”</p><p class="p3">Taehyun leans forward. “You sure? Because you never get aroused during my heats, but with Kai...”</p><p class="p3">“Fuck.” Soobin closes his eyes. Thinks back to last night, to the senseless rush of adrenaline and arousal when Kai had touched and pleaded and begged him. Thinks back to how close he’d been to giving him the mating bite. Thinks back to how hard it was to resist him, when resistance should have come easily. “I thought it was just the hormones.”</p><p class="p3">“Admittedly, hormones do have a big part to play,” Taehyun says, ever reasonable. “But they only amplify what’s already there.”</p><p class="p3">The rest goes unspoken.</p><p class="p3">Soobin feels his chest seize up in panic.</p><p class="p3">“I need a little — time,” he says, standing up so fast that the blood rushes to his head. He sways, dizzy. “I need, I need to think about this.”</p><p class="p3">“Don’t take too long,” Taehyun says. “Kai needs you.”</p><p class="p3">Fuck. Soobin glances at his watch. It’s 1:28pm.</p><p class="p3">32 minutes. That’s all the time he’s got to clear his head, sort out his thoughts. God.</p><p class="p3">“Yeah, I — I gotta go.” Soobin collects his towel and water bottle from the floor. “Hey, uh. Thanks Taehyunie.”</p><p class="p3">“No problem,” Taehyun says, giving him a sympathetic smile. “Good luck.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin nods and turns on his heel, swallowing against the dryness of his throat.</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">—</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">He smells it all the way from the elevator.</p><p class="p3">Kai.</p><p class="p3">It’s a different smell this time round, not the sweet, heady scent of Kai’s heat. It’s sharper, tangy. Almost bitter.</p><p class="p3">Something’s wrong.</p><p class="p3">Soobin barely registers himself slamming into the dorm, flinging his shoes off his feet and practically running to Kai’s room until he wrenches Kai’s door open and bursts in, panting, searching for Kai, his Omega, his to protect, his to hold, <em>his</em> —</p><p class="p3">“Hyung,” Kai says, and he’s <em>sobbing</em>. “Soobinie-hyung, <em>please</em>.”</p><p class="p3">“I’m sorry,” Soobin says, and he has no idea why he’s apologising, only that he knows with every molecule of his being that he should have been there, should never have left Kai. He’s kneeling by Kai’s bedside before his brain can even plan for it. “I’m here, Hueningie, I’m here, what’s wrong?”</p><p class="p3">“Thank fuck,” Yeonjun says, rolling out of bed. “He’s been completely inconsolable. You have no idea.”</p><p class="p3">“Sorry, hyung,” Soobin says, hovering by Kai, who’s curled up in a fetus position, still nearly naked, his back facing both him and Yeonjun. “What happened?”</p><p class="p3">“You happened, I guess,” Yeonjun says, straightening his shirt. “He’s been asking for you the moment he woke up.”</p><p class="p3">Kai sniffs, shoulders trembling.</p><p class="p3">“Thanks,” Soobin says to Yeonjun, sitting gingerly on Kai’s bed and placing a hand on Kai’s shoulder. The sharp, bitter smell ebbs immediately, fading away like a receding wave, until Soobin can finally breathe again. “Thanks for taking care of him.”</p><p class="p3">“Don’t think I helped, honestly,” Yeonjun says, a little despairingly. “He’s all yours. Keep him. I don’t think he can last another minute without you.”</p><p class="p3">“‘m sorry,” Kai mumbles, shuddering beneath Soobin’s palm.</p><p class="p3">“Shh, it’s okay,” Soobin says, watching as Yeonjun leaves the room and shuts the door. Then he strips his shirt off and slides in behind Kai. “Have you showered yet?”</p><p class="p3">“Couldn’t,” Kai says, shaky. “It was too painful.”</p><p class="p3">Painful?</p><p class="p3">“Didn’t Yeonjun help with the pain?” Soobin asks, tugging Kai in until they’re pressed right against each other.</p><p class="p3">Kai hums appreciatively. “Not really, no. I — where’d you go this morning? I missed you.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin bites back a smile. “Who’s the gum now?”</p><p class="p3">Kai doesn’t respond, just drags Soobin’s hand over his tummy instead.</p><p class="p3">“It hurt here the most,” Kai says, quietly.</p><p class="p3">The smile slips from Soobin’s lips.</p><p class="p3">“I’m sorry,” he murmurs, nosing the back of Kai’s neck. “I had vocal training in the morning.”</p><p class="p3">“It’s okay,” Kai says. “<em>I’m</em> sorry.”</p><p class="p3">“It’s not your fault."</p><p class="p3">“It is,” Kai says, starting to sound upset. “I wouldn’t have to waste yours and Yeonjun’s time if I wasn’t an Omega.”</p><p class="p3">“It’s not a waste of time,” Soobin says, slightly alarmed.</p><p class="p3">Kai doesn’t answer, just shakes his head.</p><p class="p3">“Hey,” Soobin says. “Don’t beat yourself up being an Omega. I like cuddling with you.”</p><p class="p3">“Do you?” Kai asks, voice small.</p><p class="p3">“Of course. Why do you think we’ve been cuddling for the past three years?” Soobin rubs slow circles over the soft, overheated skin of Kai’s tummy.</p><p class="p3">“Force of habit?” Kai ventures. He shivers, and the sweetness of his scent slowly swells. “I guess the upside is how <em>good</em> everything feels now.”</p><p class="p3">“Didn’t Yeonjun rub your tummy too?” Soobin asks.</p><p class="p3">“It didn’t feel the same,” Kai sighs, arching his back just slightly. In the daylight, sun arcing through the window, Kai looks almost radiant. Golden and glowing with all that milky smooth skin, just begging to be touched.</p><p class="p3">Kai sighs at the next pass Soobin’s fingers make against his lower belly. Then he sighs again, and again, and then his sighs turn into breathy moans, then full-blown whimpers, and — god. Soobin’s cock twitches in interest. It’s happening again. <em>Fuck</em>.</p><p class="p3">Soobin carefully keeps his hips angled away, and wonders desperately if he should stop rubbing Kai’s stomach.</p><p class="p3">“Hyung?” Kai says, voice thick and throaty. “Can you promise me something?”</p><p class="p3">“Anything,” Soobin says, and his own voice comes out gravelly.</p><p class="p3">“Promise me you won’t stop.”</p><p class="p3">“Uh,” Soobin says, and his fingers accidentally slip a little too low, skimming the waistband of Kai’s briefs, and Kai jerks with a bitten-off moan. “Why?”</p><p class="p3">“Just — just don’t stop,” Kai says, and then he starts gasping. “Ah, <em>ah</em> —“</p><p class="p3">The noises he makes afterwards are utterly filthy, and Soobin isn’t stupid. He knows what Kai’s gearing up to, the way he’s writhing in his arms, the way he <em>smells</em>. That fucking smell. Soobin catches a giddy whiff of Kai’s slick, gushing in earnest, and immediately stops breathing.</p><p class="p3">Kai is so, so <em>shameless</em>. Honestly, he shouldn’t be surprised.</p><p class="p3">“I just, I’ve been hard since last night and I can’t — I need —” Kai says, slurring. His hips jerk into thin air, and his fists clench by his side, and Soobin swallows against the thought of Kai finding his release right in his arms. “Lower, hyung, just — touch me. <em>Please</em>.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin feels his cock go swollen and heavy between his legs, a natural response. Honestly, there’s nothing more he wants to do than slide his hand into Kai’s pants and curl his fingers around Kai’s erection, stroke the soft, velvety head and drag the precome down the length of Kai’s arousal. He pictures jerking Kai off as he thrusts his own cock into Kai, filling him up the way he knows Kai wants it, and — yeah. Yeah, maybe he <em>is</em> attracted to Kai, in every possible way, <em>fuck</em>.</p><p class="p3">Soobin squeezes his eyes shut and stops rubbing Kai’s stomach, just splays his fingers across his heated skin in a concerted effort not to move.</p><p class="p3">“Kai...” he chokes out, strangled. “I can’t. We — we’re not in the right state of mind to give proper consent, you know that.” </p><p class="p3">“Then I’ll do it,” Kai says, voice ragged. He slides a hand under his waistband, and Soobin nearly chokes on his tongue.</p><p class="p3">“Don’t —“ Soobin starts.</p><p class="p3">But it’s too late. One touch is all it takes, and then Kai’s crying out, his entire body trembling, spine arching, spilling over his fingers and into his briefs, the intoxicating scent of Kai’s seed overpowering and overwhelming and mouth-watering and all Soobin sees is red.</p><p class="p3">The next thing he knows, Soobin has Kai flat on his back beneath him, nosing the space beneath Kai’s chin and ear, lips bared. He’s got one leg wedged between Kai’s thighs, and Kai keens, broken and desperate.</p><p class="p3">“<em>Hyung</em>,” Kai breathes, surging up against Soobin, hips arching off the bed and grinding into Soobin.</p><p class="p3">Kai must barely have recovered from his orgasm, but he’s already hard again.</p><p class="p3">“I — I can’t,” Soobin grits out, words garbled as he tries to drag himself away from Kai’s neck. He ruts his hips down, his body taking on a mind of its own. “Can’t control myself, fuck.”</p><p class="p3">“Then don’t,” Kai says, gripping Soobin by the waist and pulling him in close. “Let me help you feel good, hyung.”</p><p class="p3">“No,” Soobin gasps, lips skimming Kai’s heated skin, sweat-salty but still the sweetest thing he’s ever tasted. “<em>Kai</em>.” But Kai’s fingers are already dragging the waistband of Soobin’s sweatpants down over his hips until they pool around his knees.</p><p class="p3">“It’s okay, hyung,” Kai breathes, canting his hips up so their erections rub against each other, an exhilarating, electrifying slide of friction through the thin cotton of their briefs. “I want this. I want <em>you</em>.”</p><p class="p3">And Soobin — Soobin wants him too. Really, really wants him. Wants all of Kai — all of <em>his</em> Kai. His high-pitched laughter, his exhausting pranks, his dry sense of humour. His determined stubbornness, and his wicked mischief, and his slow, steady hand of companionship. He wants to be with Kai for the rest of his life — he’s known that, he’s always known that — but in this instance, Soobin knows with a sort of cold, sharp clarity that he wants Kai not just as a best friend, nor as a band member.</p><p class="p3">He wants Kai as his mate.</p><p class="p3">He loves Kai. Always has. That in itself isn’t a new concept — it’s just expanded and taken on an additional meaning.</p><p class="p3">It’s this realisation that clears Soobin’s head, gives him enough lucidity to drag himself away and out of bed, because. Because his love for Kai supersedes all of his stupid primal Alpha instincts and he <em>knows</em>, without a doubt, that Kai would never act like this if he wasn’t in heat.</p><p class="p3">Kai — normal, pre-heat Kai — would never forgive Soobin for taking what he isn’t permitted to have, no matter how persuasive Kai in heat can be.</p><p class="p3">Soobin stumbles out of bed and staggers against the cool, hard wall of Kai’s bedroom, panting hard through his mouth.</p><p class="p3">“Huening Kai, <em>stop</em>,” Soobin growls, and lets his voice take on an authoritative edge.</p><p class="p3">Kai immediately goes pliant in bed, eyes wide and wild.</p><p class="p3">“You,” Soobin says, with great difficulty, “are going to take a very cold shower.”</p><p class="p3">In truth, Soobin just really needs to wash the smell of sex off Kai before he loses control of his inhibitions again.</p><p class="p3">Kai just makes a soft noise of submission, so Soobin takes that as his cue to bundle Kai out of bed. He walks Kai to the bathroom, then nudges him in gently.</p><p class="p3">“I’ll be right outside,” Soobin says, when Kai turns to look back at him coyly, the invitation to join him clear in his half-lidded gaze. “Stop that. Take a shower, you’re all sticky.”</p><p class="p3">Kai licks his lips, then nods, digging his thumbs into his waistband and — and sliding them down, slow and teasing. Soobin realises, rather sluggishly, that <em>Kai’s putting on a show</em>, right there in front of him, <em>fuck.</em></p><p class="p3">Soobin slams the door shut, pressing his back against it and trying with all his might not to let his knees buckle beneath him.</p><p class="p3">Taehyun was right. Yeonjun and Beomgyu and even his <em>mom</em> were right. His mom, who once asked him, soft and tender over the phone, if there was something going on between him and Kai. <em>I love you no matter what</em>, his mom had said, but Soobin had laughed and brushed it off. He never gave it a second thought.</p><p class="p3">He doesn’t want to admit it, but his attraction to Kai… explains a lot. It explains why his first inclination upon entering any room s always to search for Kai. It explains his instinctual desire to befriend Kai, back when they’d been young, hopeful trainees. It explains why Soobin sometimes finds himself staring at the curve of Kai’s lips, and the lines of his collarbones, and even the dainty knobs of his goddamn fucking wrists.</p><p class="p3">He’d always thought they’d just been Platonic Best Friends things.</p><p class="p3">He was so fucking wrong.</p><p class="p3">He doesn’t know how long he stands there, just trying to catch his breath and collect his thoughts, but eventually something pulls him out of his reverie. A sound.</p><p class="p3">Soobin blinks out of his daze, frowning. Then he hears it again.</p><p class="p3">It’s a soft moan. From behind the closed bathroom door. It’s so quiet, Soobin barely hears it over the sound of running water, but — there it is again. Another whine, hot and needy. It’s practically calling out to him, calling for an Alpha.</p><p class="p3">God. Kai’s jerking off in the shower.</p><p class="p3">Kai must know that Soobin’s still outside. He must know that Soobin can hear him, can hear every noise he makes — even the wet slide of his hand around his cock, <em>fuck</em>. Now that Soobin knows what to listen out for, he hears it all too clearly. The sloshing of Kai’s wet fist as he pumps into his hand. The unabashed moans spilling from Kai’s mouth. The lewd, brazen, unadulterated <em>need</em>.</p><p class="p3">The smell of Kai’s arousal wafts through the gap beneath the bathroom door, and Soobin releases a small gasp of his own, can’t help himself from jerking his briefs down and coiling fingers around his own cock, sighing with relief.</p><p class="p3">They set up a pace together, Soobin timing his pumps to the wet sounds of Kai pulling himself off, biting his bottom lip hard in a desperate attempt not to moan out loud. He shouldn’t. He knows he shouldn’t. He shouldn’t be eavesdropping on Kai, shouldn’t be getting off in secret like this.</p><p class="p3">But who is he kidding? Kai probably already knows. Kai can probably smell him too, can probably hear the wet noises Soobin’s fist makes around his cock as he strokes himself. Maybe he’s getting off on Soobin getting off on Kai. Maybe he’s imagining Soobin watching him, listening to him, fucking into him as fast as Kai’s fucking his own fist, biting into the supple skin of his neck, claiming him, marking him as <em>his</em> —</p><p class="p3">Kai cries out again, except this time it isn’t wordless. It’s Soobin’s name, dripping incorrigibly from his lips. It sends Soobin reeling, straining against his hand as he thrusts into his fist, faster and harder. He catches a whiff of Kai’s come as Kai’s orgasm hits, and that tips him over the edge too, sends him flying off the rails so fast he barely has enough presence of mind to pull his briefs back up so he doesn’t shoot all over the floor when he comes, exploding into his fist like a train wreck.</p><p class="p3">When Soobin finally comes down from his orgasm, Kai is humming innocently to himself in the bathroom, as though he hadn’t just heard Soobin come apart at the seams with all the force of a tornado.</p><p class="p3">Fucking Huening Kai.</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">—</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">Soobin allows himself another round in the shower, worked up again when Kai exits and brushes past him with a teasing hand to Soobin’s stomach. By the time they finally fall back into bed, spent and exhausted, Soobin feels like he’s just run a marathon and then some. Nonetheless, the shower and its associated… activities… seem to do them a world of good, because they both knock out immediately upon hitting Kai’s mattress.</p><p class="p3">The next time Soobin blinks his eyes open, the room is dark. The faint murmur of the other members having their dinner outside filters through the bedroom door, and Soobin’s stomach rumbles.</p><p class="p3">He briefly considers leaving Kai asleep in bed to help himself to dinner. Light from outside slips in under the door, highlighting Kai’s face with a single strip of yellow. Kai’s lips are pressed together almost in a pout, eyelashes fluttering in his sleep. In his slumber he looks like the boy Soobin is used to, before his heat and its ensuing chaos. Like the boy Soobin’s fallen asleep with and woken up to countless of times, and the boy Soobin has kept closest to his heart for what feels like his whole life.</p><p class="p3">Soobin feels his heart swell, and thinks wryly to himself that he’d much rather have his heart swell than any other body part of his.</p><p class="p3">Slowly, Soobin slides out of bed, careful not to jostle Kai — but it’s all in vain, because Kai wakes up anyway.</p><p class="p3">“Where’re’ou going?” Kai mumbles, slurring in his grogginess.</p><p class="p3">“Dinner,” Soobin says. “How’re you feeling? Are you hungry?”</p><p class="p3">“Mm.” Kai makes grabby hands at Soobin, and Soobin flinches back. “What’s wrong?”</p><p class="p3">“Nothing!” Soobin says. Then he squints, and breathes in deep through his nose. Kai smells… good, as usual. But that’s all. He just smells good. Freshly showered. A little sleepy. The scent of his heat is barely noticeable now. “Your heat’s over.”</p><p class="p3">Thank god.</p><p class="p3">Kai stretches luxuriously — then stiffens, as though suddenly hit by the memory of the past 24 hours. “Oh. Oh my god.”</p><p class="p3">“You did well, Hueningie,” Soobin says, warm.</p><p class="p3">“Hyung,” Kai says, squeezing his eyes shut, “what — what did I do?”</p><p class="p3">“Nothing much,” Soobin lies. “Just, you know. Stuff.”</p><p class="p3">“Fuck,” Kai whispers.</p><p class="p3">“That, we did not do.”</p><p class="p3">“<em>Fuck</em>,” Kai says, emphatically. Even in the darkness, Soobin can see his face paling. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry, hyung, I — I don’t know what came over me, I —“</p><p class="p3">“It’s fine,” Soobin says. “Really. I completely understand. It’s just — it was the heat. First heats, they can be tough, I’m sure Taehyun will tell you all about it. Um. Don’t worry about it.”</p><p class="p3">“We didn’t…” Kai trails off, looking unsure, biting his lip so hard Soobin’s sure it’ll leave marks. “Did we?”</p><p class="p3">“No,” Soobin says quickly. “No, no, we didn’t do anything at all.” He laughs, and it sounds too sharp in the sudden silence, like shards of glass piercing the suddenly thick wall of tension between them.</p><p class="p3">“Oh,” Kai says, softly. There’s a short, stilted moment of silence. “Good.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin’s heart sinks. “Yeah.” He swallows. “Good.”</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">—</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">With Kai’s first heat out of the way, their manager buys him off-the-shelf suppressants, and Taehyun teaches Kai how to take them in moderation. In general, it’s always better for Omegas and Alphas to ride out their heats and ruts respectively the way it should be done, naturally. But if they’re in the middle of a round of promotions, or a concert tour, or there’s a schedule that can’t be shifted, then that’s when the suppressants come in.</p><p class="p3">They talk about heat/rut arrangements, and about Kai’s weird opposition to Yeonjun’s companionship, and eventually they settle on pairing Yeonjun with Taehyun, and Soobin with Kai, which would be <em>great</em>, except that it’s really not, because. Well.</p><p class="p3">They haven’t talked about it — about any of it.</p><p class="p3">If there’s one thing Soobin excels at, after all, it’s not talking about things.</p><p class="p3">Things take a terribly awkward turn between him and Kai. They stop sleeping together in the living room, for one. Kai’s a little more guarded around Soobin these days, and a lot more resistant to physical affection. Every time they so much as brush shoulders, Kai flinches, and it — it stings, honestly.</p><p class="p3">Soobin had tried so hard to prevent this from happening, but clearly he should have tried harder.</p><p class="p3">“Look,” Yeonjun says, one fine afternoon, pulling Soobin aside after a particularly awkward lunch in which Kai had refused to look anywhere in Soobin’s direction. “Your rut’s coming soon.”</p><p class="p3">“I know that,” Soobin says, tersely. He can feel it, like a phantom itch in the base of his spine.</p><p class="p3">“You know you need to sort things out between you and Kai before then, right?”</p><p class="p3">“I’ll just go on suppressants,” Soobin says resolutely.</p><p class="p3">Yeonjun doesn’t say anything, just levels him with a stare that says it all.</p><p class="p3">Soobin sighs. “I can’t. He’s been avoiding me.”</p><p class="p3">“And you’re letting him,” Yeonjun says.</p><p class="p3">“I am. I don’t want to… force him into anything.”</p><p class="p3">Yeonjun rolls his eyes so violently, Soobin worries they’ll pop out of his head. “Are you <em>kidding</em> me?”</p><p class="p3">“No,” Soobin replies, frowning.</p><p class="p3">“Is this some kind of stupid honourable Alpha thing you have going on?” Yeonjun asks. “Because it’s not. Honourable.”</p><p class="p3">“What do you want me to do?” Soobin asks, patience wearing thin. “Tell Kai <em>hey, by the way, my dumb Alpha brain wanted me to fuck you into next week when you were in heat?</em> I don’t think so.”</p><p class="p3">Yeonjun mimes gagging. “Maybe not in such great detail, but something like that, sure.”</p><p class="p3">“No,” Soobin says, with finality.</p><p class="p3">“Okay, well, let’s start small,” Yeonjun says, spreading his hands out, palms up. “Do you want to kiss Kai? Just a peck on the lips, nothing more.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin thinks back to all the times he’d gotten distracted by Kai’s mouth.</p><p class="p3">“That’s not up for discussion,” Soobin says instead, and walks out of the room.</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">—</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">Yeonjun must have said something to Beomgyu, because that night as they prepare to sleep, Beomgyu says to Soobin: “You owe me.”</p><p class="p3">“What?” Soobin says, flopping into bed.</p><p class="p3">“This time tomorrow I’m going to be 30,000 won poorer, and it’ll be all your fault,” Beomgyu says, sitting up in bed. “I demand compensation.”</p><p class="p3">Oh. That stupid bet. “Yeonjun hasn’t won yet,” Soobin says. “Kai and I havent done anything. <em>Won’t</em>. Be doing anything.”</p><p class="p3">“<em>No</em>,” Beomgyu wails. “I’m losing to <em>Taehyun</em>.”</p><p class="p3">“Taehyun?” Soobin echoes, feeling somewhat betrayed.</p><p class="p3">“He bet that you and Kai would be so dense about your feelings for each other that you’d end up not talking for at least a week after Kai’s heat. And tomorrow marks one week.”</p><p class="p3">“That little —“</p><p class="p3">“You’re the only one who can help me,” Beomgyu says piteously. “You need to talk to Kai. Tonight.”</p><p class="p3">“Uh.” Soobin will do no such thing. “No.”</p><p class="p3">“You don’t get a choice,” Beomgyu says, standing up.</p><p class="p3">Almost as if it was planned, there’s a knock on their bedroom door, and Kai peeks in. “Beomgyu-hyung? You wanted to talk to me?”</p><p class="p3">“Come, sit,” Beomgyu says, patting the bed next to him.</p><p class="p3">Kai casts an anxious look at Soobin, then darts in and sits next to Beomgyu.</p><p class="p3">Soobin narrows his eyes at Beomgyu.</p><p class="p3">“Choi Soobin and Huening Kai,” Beomgyu says, primly. “Thank you for attending your first Alpha/Omega counselling session.”</p><p class="p3">“Is this… a prank?” Soobin asks, slowly.</p><p class="p3">“Unfortunately, it is not,” Beomgyu sighs. “Allow me to lay out the ground work. My informants tell me that things became rather… heated between the two of you during Kai’s first heat.”</p><p class="p3">“Oh my <em>god</em>,” Soobin says. “No. We are not discussing this.”</p><p class="p3">“Stop it,” Kai hisses to Beomgyu.</p><p class="p3">Beomgyu charges on. “My informants also tell me that both of you enjoyed it. A lot.”</p><p class="p3">“We didn’t do anything,” Soobin says, levelly.</p><p class="p3">“Yet Taehyun tells me his room reeked of arousal — from the <em>both</em> of you, Soobinie — for <em>days</em>.”</p><p class="p3">“Make him stop,” Kai hisses to Soobin.</p><p class="p3">“I’m trying,” Soobin hisses back.</p><p class="p3">“Yeonjun also informed me that Soobinie told him, and I quote, that Kai was getting to Soobin in a way that Taehyun, in his heats, had never done,” Beomgyu carries on, looking far too pleased with himself.</p><p class="p3">“Okay, <em>out</em>,” Soobin yelps, and drags Beomgyu out of the room. “I’ll talk to Kai myself. <em>Just the two of us</em>.”</p><p class="p3">Beomgyu grins. “Wonderful,” he says. “Don’t come out until things are settled between you two.” Then he flounces off.</p><p class="p3">Soobin has a sneaking suspicion that they’ve just been played.</p><p class="p3">When he re-enters the room and heads back to his bed, Kai’s staring at the ground so hard that Soobin’s half-afraid the floor will split apart from the intensity of his gaze.</p><p class="p3">“Is it true?” Kai asks, after what feels like three suffocating hours tick past, though it’s probably really only been three seconds. “What Beomgyu said?”</p><p class="p3">Soobin opens his mouth. Closes it.</p><p class="p3">“What did you mean by me... getting to you?” Kai asks, still staring at the ground.</p><p class="p3">Soobin swallows. “It just — felt different,” he says, lamely.</p><p class="p3">“Different... bad?” Kai flicks his eyes up, finally, and he looks so miserable that Soobin wishes he could go up to him and cross this horrible, gaping <em>chasm</em> that seems to have developed between the two of them and just hug him.</p><p class="p3">“No,” Soobin says, softly. “Different good.”</p><p class="p3">Kai chews on his bottom lip.</p><p class="p3">“How much do you... remember?” Soobin asks, reluctantly.</p><p class="p3">“Too much,” Kai mumbles.</p><p class="p3">“I might have... said some things I didn’t mean,” Soobin says, going out on a limb.</p><p class="p3">“What... what things?”</p><p class="p3">“What do you remember?”</p><p class="p3">Kai flushes. “Can we not?”</p><p class="p3">Soobin leans forward, changing tracks. “You’ve been avoiding me. Why?”</p><p class="p3">Kai’s throat clicks audibly when he swallows. “Well,” he hedges. “We did — things, and I. I don’t really know what to say. Just. I’m sorry I made things weird.”</p><p class="p3">“Don’t be,” Soobin says. He sighs. Yeonjun has a point. “If I’m the only one who can help you through your heats, we need to, to talk about it. About what happened. We both can’t live on suppressants forever.”</p><p class="p3">“Omegas have made it through heats without Alphas,” Kai says, lowly. “And vice versa.”</p><p class="p3">“But it’s far from pleasant,” Soobin says.</p><p class="p3">“What can we do, then?” Kai asks plaintively. “I — I can’t control myself around you. Clearly. I just — we’re best friends, and I don’t wanna sacrifice that for my stupid Omega biology.”</p><p class="p3">“Maybe it’s not so bad,” Soobin says, throat going dry, “to help each other out. That’s what best friends do, right?”</p><p class="p3">Kai stares at him with wide eyes. It reminds Soobin, abruptly, of Kai’s wild eyes during his heat. “What are you saying?”</p><p class="p3">“You know what I’m saying,” Soobin says, feeling his cheeks flood with embarrassment. “You got hard. I got hard. I wouldn’t... mind.”</p><p class="p3">Kai sucks in a sharp breath. “You got hard?”</p><p class="p3">“I,” Soobin says, faltering. “Forget it. Ignore me.”</p><p class="p3">But there’s a curiosity burning in Kai’s gaze now. “You told me you didn’t want me,” Kai says, fists clenching the loose material of his sweatpants. “I thought I’d just... <em>imagined</em> that you liked it. I thought the heat made me delusional.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin’s breath catches in his throat. “I only said that to get you to stop. I — I was worried, Huening-ah. I didn’t know how much of what happened was what <em>you</em> wanted, or what your biology was telling you you wanted."</p><p class="p3">Kai unclenches his fists, spreading his fingers wide open on his thighs. “Did you mean it?”</p><p class="p3">“At the time,” Soobin admits. “I... I’ve never really imagined that anything like this would happen between us. I, uh, I was caught off guard.”</p><p class="p3">“What about now?” Kai whispers, and his eyes are wide and terrified.</p><p class="p3">Soobin swallows. “I love you Kai. You know that.”</p><p class="p3">Kai nods, and there’s colour high in his cheeks.</p><p class="p3">Soobin thinks about telling Kai how much he’d wanted to claim him. To fuck him.</p><p class="p3">“The heat wasn’t making you delusional,” Soobin says instead. “Just... difficult to resist.”</p><p class="p3">“When I jerked off in the shower,” Kai says, emboldened, “did you get off on that, or did I imagine that?”</p><p class="p3">Soobin chokes on his saliva. “Wow,” he stutters. “I — no, yeah, um. That... happened.”</p><p class="p3">“So you want me?” Kai breathes, fingers curling into the bedsheets, and there’s that unforgettable scent of Kai’s arousal again. Except this time he’s completely in control of his inhibitions. This time there’s no heat, no raging hormones, no uncertainty.</p><p class="p3">The question lies, floating, in the space between them, and Soobin gives up trying to find the words to say, pushing himself off his bed and surging across the room to Kai instead. Kai’s eyes track him, sharp, and darken when Soobin presses him gently down into Beomgyu’s bed.</p><p class="p3">“Yeah,” Soobin says, roughly, <em>finally </em>finding his voice. “Yeah, I do.”</p><p class="p3">Then he leans in, fingers curling against Kai’s jaw, and kisses him.</p><p class="p3">Kai tastes ten times better than he smells, sweet like chocolate but with an edge, like the darkest, richest of chocolate. The scent of Kai’s arousal spikes again, and Soobin inhales it greedily as he settles himself over Kai, spreading Kai’s legs with one of his thighs. Kai makes a dark, wild noise, hands grappling to find purchase against Soobin’s skin.</p><p class="p3">Soobin pours out his desire into their kiss, into the rough press of their lips. Licks into the wet heat of Kai’s mouth, the irresistible curve of his lips.</p><p class="p3">Kai whimpers, his pulse a messy tremble beneath Soobin’s lips when he drags his mouth over Kai’s neck. He bares his teeth, grazes the section of Kai’s neck that would he his if he claimed it, that would display his mating bite to the world if he wished for it. But perhaps it might be too soon for that, so Soobin runs his teeth past it, tastes the hollows of Kai’s delicate, distracting collarbones instead, then travels southwards and drags Kai’s shirt up to lick at his pink, pert nipples.</p><p class="p3">All the while, Kai pants above him, shallow, uneven breaths that break into moans every so often, and into Soobin’s name more often than not.</p><p class="p3">“Soobinie-hyung — want you,” Kai gasps, bucking his hips up. “I’ve wanted you for ages.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin staggers to a stop. “What?” he says, breathless. “Since when?”</p><p class="p3">“Since — I don’t know,” Kai says, breath coming in staccato gasps. “A year, maybe two. I’ve lost track.”</p><p class="p3">“Fuck, Kai,” Soobin says. “Why didn’t you <em>tell</em> me?”</p><p class="p3">“You never saw me that way,” Kai stutters. “We were always best friends, nothing more.”</p><p class="p3">“Not anymore,” Soobin murmurs, dragging himself back up to bring their mouths together, tongues teasing each other, tantalising wet slides of unspoken desire. He drops his hands to Kai’s waistband, and before he can pull away to ask, Kai goes <em>yeah, hyung, go on</em>, so he dips his fingers in and slides Kai’s pants off, and the scent of Kai’s slick hits him like a hammer, sends Soobin’s mouth watering.</p><p class="p3">“You have no idea,” Soobin groans, nuzzling a line up Kai’s inner thigh, “no idea how good you smell.”</p><p class="p3">Kai’s cock jerks, pink and flushed, a milky white bead of precome pearling on the head.</p><p class="p3">“How about you show me,” Kai gasps, coy and unabashed, so Soobin takes him up on that offer, licking a long stripe from thigh to cock. Then he swallows Kai down, and Kai cries out, hips bucking without control. Soobin has to hold him down to keep from choking, saliva dribbling out from the side of his mouth, and <em>god</em> he tastes so good, Soobin could blow Kai forever.</p><p class="p3">Above him, Kai’s reduced to a desperate mess of incoherence, fingers digging into Soobin’s shoulders. “Want you,” Kai whines, “hyung, <em>Alpha</em>, want you, please.”</p><p class="p3">The pleased growl springs to his throat before he can swallow it, and it rumbles through Soobin’s chest with the sharp satisfaction of hearing an Omega beg. <em>His</em> Omega.</p><p class="p3">“What do you want?” Soobin asks, voice raspy, pulling off Kai’s cock. “Tell me, baby.”</p><p class="p3">“Want you,” Kai whimpers, legs falling apart. “Want you in me, hyung.”</p><p class="p3">“Fuck,” Soobin says, guttural, and pushes Kai’s thighs up until his legs are lifted. Obediently, Kai hooks them around Soobin shoulders, spreading himself wide for Soobin, <em>presenting</em> himself — such a lewd sight, so maddening Soobin worries he might not last longer than a single second in Kai.</p><p class="p3">“Come on, Alpha,” Kai goads, tilting his head back, exposing the part of his neck that’s just screaming at Soobin to claim. “Fuck me, fuck me hard, please, want you to fill me up, <em>use me</em>, come on.”</p><p class="p3">“Using your words, I see,” Soobin says, and then he presses a finger into Kai, through the tight, fluttering ring of muscle just overflowing with slick. “Good boy.” </p><p class="p3">That gets a reaction out of Kai, his entire body shuddering as he arches desperately beneath Soobin, a cry slipping like molten gold from his lips.</p><p class="p3">“You like that?” Soobin asks, voice hard and rough as he slides his finger out, then fucks it in hard. “You like it when I praise you, call you my good boy, my good Omega?”</p><p class="p3">“Ah, hyung,” Kai gasps, throwing his head back, fingers scrabbling the sheets. “Just fuck me already, <em>please</em>, I’m gonna —“</p><p class="p3">“Go ahead,” Soobin says, hungry. “Be a good boy and come for me.”</p><p class="p3">“<em>Fuck</em> —“ Kai swears, and then he’s spilling over himself, completely untouched, and the smell of it sends Soobin into a frenzy. He can’t get in Kai fast enough. He slides in a second digit, and it goes in easily, Kai’s asshole practically eating him up. He wastes no time in sliding in a third, scissoring his fingers all the while as Kai shivers and trembles from his orgasm, until Kai sobs: “I’m ready, I’m ready, fuck me, I’m going <em>insane</em>.”</p><p class="p3">Soobin pulls his fingers out, then grabs a pillow and slides it beneath Kai’s hips. He’s still fully clothed, while Kai’s a naked mess beneath him, and in his haste he sends the button on his pants flying across the room as he yanks it down.</p><p class="p3">“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Soobin growls, taking his swollen, throbbing cock in hand and positioning himself at Kai’s entrance, pressing his head snug against Kai’s red, wet hole.</p><p class="p3">“Yeah, yeah,” Kai breathes, almost blabbering, and his eyes snap open with awe when Soobin slides in, going as slow as he can so he doesn’t accidentally explode before he even manages to push all the way in.</p><p class="p3">Kai’s eyes are blown dark and needy and Kai is hot and tight around him and Soobin is literally about to blow his load. He swallows, and squeezes his eyes shut against the persuasive pull of Kai as he starts wriggling beneath him, struggling to find friction when Soobin refuses to move.</p><p class="p3">“Stop that,” Soobin orders, and Kai goes still and pliant. “I’m gonna come if you continue moving.”</p><p class="p3">“Want you,” Kai says, eyes focusing on Soobin with an intensity that shakes Soobin to the core. “Want you to come inside me.”</p><p class="p3">“Patience,” Soobin says, swallowing against the heat coiling in his lower belly. He leans down and kisses Kai again, something to distract him from the incredible feeling around his cock, and Kai moans sweetly into his mouth, <em>please, please</em> falling from his lips until Soobin feels the initial wave of near-orgasm ebb away.</p><p class="p3">“Okay,” Soobin says against Kai’s lips, then he leans back up and grips Kai’s hips and pulls out, slowly, inch by aching inch, before slamming in without warning. Kai cries out, half in surprise and half in ecstasy, and then Soobin is fucking into Kai hard, uncoordinated at first, but quickly discovering a frantic rhythm that has Kai keening, high-pitched.</p><p class="p3">Kai is hard again, his cock bobbing against his stomach with every thrust, smearing precome against his skin. Soobin leans forward to kiss Kai, messy and dirty and open-mouthed, and the change in angle has him fucking up into a spot that sends Kai almost sobbing with pleasure, clawing down Soobin’s back as he trembles all over, tightening relentlessly around Soobin’s cock buried deep in him. Every thrust sends Kai nearer and nearer to the edge; Soobin reaches around and strokes Kai’s cock, a single, light touch along his crown, and that sends Kai flying apart at the seams, spurting hot white stripes all over his tummy, Soobin’s name on his lips.</p><p class="p3">All of it — the wet, tight heat of Kai, the way he rocks back into Soobin’s thrusts, his milky smooth skin — it’s all too much, too overwhelming, and the thought of being so close, so connected to the boy he’s loved so much and for so long sends Soobin tipping right over the edge with Kai, spilling deep into Kai, his blood singing with the thrill of having claimed Kai so deeply.</p><p class="p3">It takes awhile for Soobin to return to his senses, but when he finally does he pulls out gently — Kai whining at the loss — and collapses into bed next to Kai, drawing their mouths together in a long, lingering kiss.</p><p class="p3">“That was...” Kai starts, when they break apart.</p><p class="p3">“Amazing,” Soobin says. “Mind-blowing. Out of this world.”</p><p class="p3">“... probably not what Beomgyu had in mind when he started our counselling session,” Kai finishes. </p><p class="p3">“Oh, fuck,” Soobin says, realising the gravity of the situation. His come is still seeping out of Kai’s ass and into Beomgyu’s bed. “He’s going to <em>slaughter</em> us.”</p><p class="p3">“Good thing I have my big, bad Alpha to protect me,” Kai murmurs, looking at him through lowered lashes.</p><p class="p3">“No, nuh-uh. You’re going down with me,” Soobin says.</p><p class="p3">“How about this,” Kai proposes. “Your rut’s coming soon, right? Let’s just ask Beomgyu to take my bed until your rut’s over.” Kai licks his lips. “We’ll be able to do whatever we want, wherever we want.”</p><p class="p3">“Oh,” Soobin breathes, and feels his cock stir in interest again. ”How do you feel about the table?”</p><p class="p3">Kai’s eyes darken. “I like the sound of that.”</p><p class="p3"> </p><p class="p3">(Meanwhile:</p><p class="p3">“Called it,” Yeonjun crows, in Taehyun’s room where the three of them including Beomgyu had huddled together in horror when the sounds of Soobin and Kai doing the deed first started filtering through the too-thin walls. “Fork it up, suckers!”)</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p3">
  <strong>End. </strong>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>... yeah i don't know what happened here either</p><p>but as always your comments are dearly appreciated!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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